Archive for the ‘Ashes’ category
With the oustanding efforts of the England cricket team splashed across the media, Virgin Trains have boarded the bandwagon by given the Australians a fresh reminder of their loss with a touch of English humour.
This is not the first time that Virgin Trains have run ads featuring sports stars. At the start of this year the company ran a ‘Liverpool to London return faster than Robbie Keane” campaign.
By Simon Roche on August 26th, 2009
Tags: Advertising, Ashes, Cricket, Default
Just when Tuffers and Dizzy thought they had got over the worst of the dangerous, nerve racking and quite possibly life-threatening Betfair Challenges, they arrived at a farm in Leeds ahead of the Headingley Test to bowl each other down a giant hill in zorbs, attempting to hit the super sized inflatable stumps at the bottom.
Sky Sports News and BBC Look North turned out to film the action and there was much concern from both Dizzy and Tuffers that they may well be sick live on TV! Tuffers bowled first and sent Dizzy down the hill at 30mph with a googly that uprooted offstump. Dizzy levelled the Challenge by launching a very ill-looking Tuffers down the hill and in to the stumps. Challenge drawn, leaving the series poised at 2-1 to England, with the all important 6-aside cricket match to be played.
The final Challenge took the series to the Hurlingham Club in West London – and Tuffers continued his good form and brought the trophy back to England. Although Dizzy had “The Cat” cowering to square leg against his aggresive fast bowling, Tuffers’ Tyrants held on with the help of a majestic knock from ex West Indies batsman Jimmy Adams. To watch all the action go to FanvFan.com
Dizzy now has to face a forfeit for losing the Betfair Challenge series. He will have the honour of having the St George Cross emblazoned across his chest at The Oval and have to cheer England on amongst the Barmy Army as England look to win the real Ashes in the final Test.
By Simon Roche on August 20th, 2009
Tags: Ashes, Branded content, Default, Digital marketing
This summer, we at Synergy are working with Betfair, the online betting exchange, to bring their ECB partnership to life through a fun and entertaining online campaign. Ashes fever is sweeping the nation as ultimate rivals England and Australia battle for the Ashes urn. We’ve signed up Ashes legends Phil ‘The Cat’ Tufnell and Jason ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie to go head-to-head in a series of (Synergy-inspired) challenges that can be watched on the dedicated website FANvFAN.com.
The website, designed by Engine group company Altogether, offers more than just the videos with the chance to win tickets to each Test match, a chance to play alongside Tuffers and Dizzy and the opportinity to win £4,000.
The virals started in Cardiff with the pedalo race before moving on to Lord’s and the extreme lawn mower race. Our most recent visit was to Warwick race course as Dizzy and Tuffers galloped a furlong down the finishing straight.
The campaign is proving to be very popular and even made the top spot of Media Week’s Great Viral feature.
Betfair Challenges - www.fanvfan.com
Keep your eyes peeled as the adventures for our two cricketing legends continue!
By Caroline Ayling on August 3rd, 2009
Tags: Ashes, Cricket, Digital marketing, Sponsorship, Television audiences
Bell’s whisky acted fast this week to leverage Ian Bell’s recall to the England cricket team. The Diageo-owned whisky brand announced its sponsorship of Ian Bell’s bat as he takes the stage in the third Ashes Test at his home ground in Edgbaston.
By Caroline Ayling on July 31st, 2009
Tags: Advertising, Alcohol, Ashes, Brand marketing, Cricket, Sponsorship, Sport
© Nick Potts / PA (Telegraph Media Group)
One highlight from the rather depressing cricket news today.
With England cricket fans still reeling from the devastating announcement of KP’s withdrawal from the remainder of the npower Ashes series, the above image found its way into two of the national broadsheets today.
PA photographer Nick Potts managed to capture and distill into one image the cloud of troubled thoughts surrounding England’s would-be captain at the present time. Standing in front of the sightscreen branded with title sponsor npower’s latest slogan, the hoarding rather ironically conveys: Home Team – Service and Repair – this summer… just what KP had hoped for and, unfortunately, was denied.
Don’t worry folks. He’ll be back.
By Lucie Bartlett on July 23rd, 2009
BSkyB and npower, respectively broadcaster and sponsor of this summer’s much-anticipated Ashes Test cricket series, revealed their Ashes marketing strategies this week, which take radically different approaches.
Sky’s ‘It Can Only Be An Ashes Summer’ campaign, promoting Sky HD, wonderfully evokes the event’s rivalry and heritage, and features England icon Sir Ian Botham. All good, and here’s the TV ad – created, incidentally, by our sister agency WCRS.
Conversely, npower will be using Aardman Animation characters playing village cricket, in a retention-focused campaign promoting a £100 discount offer, supported by experiential cricket events. So far so good, but I’m puzzled by npower marketing director Kevin Peake’s reported comments in this week’s Marketing Week, that the campaign will be ”targeted” and “niche” to “reflect the mood” of the country.
Eh? Much as I admire Kevin’s habitual left-field approach, the biggest, most eagerly-awaited sporting event of the summer, and the only time that cricket in this part of the world achieves genuine mass appeal, doesn’t strike me as the ideal time to go niche.
And as for ”reflecting the mood” of the country, surely it would be more effective – like Sky – to use The Ashes to tap into the public’s hunger for escapism? As Mike Atherton pointed out in The Times back in February, sport has always fulfilled this hunger, but especially in times of recession.
‘…interest in hockey, baseball and other [US] sports did not diminish during [the Great Depression]. If anything, it increased. The public’s appetite for fun, frolics and irrelevancy was proportional to their hardship. Seabiscuit, the great racehorse, became popular partly because the story was an unlikely one: a small horse with a poor gait and an alcoholic jockey struck a chord with those fighting against seemingly insurmountable odds. When Seabiscuit faced War Admiral in a race billed as the “match of the century”, an estimated 40million tuned in to listen.’
By Tim Crow on May 28th, 2009
Tags: Advertising, Ashes, Brand marketing, Cricket, Default, Sponsorship
In the ever evolving world that is sponsorship PR, there are two factors that increasingly hit our radar again and again:
1. A client’s request to come up with an idea that is unique, something never been done before, one that will grip news editors, secure acres of coverage, go down in history. Ideally the idea should also be engaging, clever and memorable. And must reward customers too.
No mean feat – a new, engaging, rewarding killer idea.
Leave it with us.
2. The power of celebville. The obsession with celebrities and fame, Heat headlines and Hello! ‘exclusives’ which shows no signs of truly waning. People yearn to be famous particularly those with no discerning talent. Shame on them. I don’t get it but then I don’t actively choose to be the centre of attention, preferring to promote clients; make them more famous for what they do, rather then me.
However, an idea that recently caught my eye is one that manages to combine the two – a never been done before corker that will guarantee headlines and media coverage across the land. And at the same time, a stunt that will make normal beings famous. Give an everyday Joe his 15 seconds of fame. Although in this case, it will be a whole hour; an impressive 3,600 seconds.
And I love it enough to (temporarily) abandon my ‘I really don’t want to be in the limelight, honestly I blush very easily’ genes and sign up for my very own moment in the media spotlight.
Those that live in London will almost certainly be familiar with the Fourth Plinth. Those who don’t juggle their evening commute reading between London Lite, the London Paper and the Evening Standard may be happily oblivious so here goes; the Fourth Plinth is in the north-west of Trafalgar Square. Built in 1841, it was originally intended for an equestrian statue but remained empty for years. It is now the location for specially commissioned art works. The most talked about commission unveiled on the Fourth Plinth was Marc Quinn’s sculpture Alison Lapper Pregnant which was taken down in October 2007.
Lapper was born with no arms and shortened legs. Quinn’s inspiration came from the fact that there was ‘no positive representation of disability in the history of public art’.
Controversial? Absolutely. Powerful enough to change peoples’ perceptions of disability and motherhood. Definitely. It was widely viewed as a success, capturing the attention of the public and global media alike.
Alison Lapper has long gone. Thomas Schütte’s Model for a Hotel 2007, unveiled in November 2007, is currently on the Fourth Plinth.
But it’s a future resident of the Plinth that I am most interested by; Antony Gormley’s ‘One and Other’. Antony Gormley and Yinka Shonibare (to follow later in the year) were chosen from a shortlist of six artists. Gormley? I know the name. English sculptor, Londoner by birth, him of Angel of the North fame, erected in Gateshead back in 1998. And a range of other public sculpture commissions.
For ‘One and Other’, Antony is looking for 2,400 members of the public who have volunteered to stand on the plinth for an hour at a time.
I love it. It’s a cracker. And so simple. I’m inspired and I find myself wanting to be part of it.
The official line from Gormley is “Through elevation onto the plinth and removal from common ground, the subjective living body becomes both representation and representative, encouraging consideration of diversity, vulnerability and the individual in contemporary society’.
Hmmmm, I’m not so sure that did it for me Ant. My motivation is driven by an opportunity to be part of history in a vibrant city in which I have lived for the past 9 years. Perhaps also because Trafalgar Square, location of the Fouth Plinth, holds happy memories for me. Having worked on the historic npower Ashes Series of 2005, I was privileged to watch the England cricket team’s victorious tour parade perched on some tall column owned by a chap called Nelson. Top view, what a summer. And the final brucie bonus is that it’s nice and close to the office; easy to squeeze in my hour of plinth service between meetings. Convenience is everything.
I applaud Antony Gormley for his creative concept and I high five the Mayor of London’s Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group for choosing it. When you see Gormley’s Fourth Plinth unveiled, whenever that is, think of me. Website ballot permitting, I will be there soaking up the spotlight. Me, myself and I.
For one hour only.
By Stephanie Branston on July 24th, 2008
Tags: Ashes, Public relations, Sponsorship, The Arts
By Tim Crow on June 18th, 2008
Tags: Ashes, Barclays Premier League, Cricket, ECB, ICC World Twenty20, Indian Premier League, New Product Development, Stanford Twenty20 for 20, UEFA Champions League
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